The Blue Flame
Chapter 1 – What Once Was Lost
Bulma lay awake staring at the ceiling of her room aboard the ship. Not yet tired she had yet to change from her blue jeans and simple yellow tee-shirt. Her hair was haphazardly pulled back into a ponytail and her face was recently washed free of any traces of makeup. In her mind she was calculating how long until they would reach Vegetasai. "Three days from home in route to the Orion Cluster, two days headed towards Vegetasai . . . that makes eight more days to go." Bulma whispered to herself with a smile. Her eyes scanned her grey surrounds for the thousandth time for something to end her boredom. She sat up remembering the capsules in her suitcase with her many books she had packed to share with Vegeta, thankful that Piccolo and her father had seen to her luggage. She crossed the room and opened her suitcase and grabbed the belt that held a multitude of capsules. She closed the case and slid it back under her bead. "Why hadn't I thought of this before?" She mused.
As she sat back on bed she heard heavy footsteps walking closer to her door and she froze. Those same footsteps came to halt outside of her door for a moment before continuing along the corridor towards the bridge. What is he up to? Bulma wondered as she got up and pressed her ear to the door. She heard the door to the bridge open and close. She wrapped the belt around her waist and pressed the button and opened her own door and she slid silently down the hallway. From outside the door she could hear faint muttering and cursing coming from Yamcha. Bulma opened the door to see Yamcha standing over the helm and pressing buttons. Then is dawned on her, He's changing our trajectory!
"What do you think you are doing?" Bulma screeched, pointing her finger at him.
Yamcha jumped and whirled around, eyes wide. "No sense denying it now, seeing how I have been caught red-handed. I'm changing course. I refuse to allow you to go groveling back to that bastard!" His voice getting louder.
"You refuse! YOU refuse!" Bulma yelled in response. "What gives you the right to say where and what I can do? I am the crowned Princess of Chickarou and you are nothing! A fraud!" Bulma seethed. She had about enough of him presuming to tell her what to do and this was going to end now.
Yamcha's eyes reflected hurt and then anger. "How can you say that to me? I am the one who has been here for you, not him. I am the one who picked up the pieces when he left!" He accused.
"You've been a great friend, Yamcha, but do not presume to tell me what to do. I've known about your kingdom for quite some time now. Did you think I did not know? But I accepted your friendship anyway. I never held that against you. But this is going too far! I am a grown woman and I am going to see Vegeta." She shout.
"You are barely seventeen, Bulma, hardly yet grown. You need someone to look out for your best interests. To. . ." Yamcha pleaded.
Bulma cut him off, "My best interests or the best interests of your coin purse?!" She questioned with a venomous tongue.
Yamcha looked at her with a dangerous expression. "Do you want to know what happened to my kingdom, Princess? The Saiyans happened! About ten years ago they showed up one night; no warning, no discussion, and laid waste to my entire planet. Women. Children. I was lucky to have survived and snuck away aboard a freighter with the hired crew." Yamcha was barely speaking in a whisper, his voice hoarse with unshed tears. To his side his hands were balled into fists, glowing with energy from pent up rage.
Bulma stepped closer, "Yamcha, I'm sorry. I did not know. I . . ." Bulma was at a loss for words. Vegeta would have an explanation, she was just sure of it.
"That is why . . . I. . . REFUSE to hand you over to them! Better off DEAD than at their mercy" Yamcha yelled causing Bulma to jump as he brought his fist down over the control panel of the helm.
Electricity surged throughout the ships computers and the main power went down. Alarms were ringing out all over the ship from multisystem failures. Bulma forgot the fear that had gripped her moments ago and pushed passed Yamcha to see what needed to be done. She opened a panel underneath the helm the circuit boards were fused together, completely melted.
In the hours that followed she had no idea in which direction they were going, but they were moving fast and she had no way of gaining control of the ship yet. She frantically attempted to repair system after system as the failing ship seemed to be falling apart. The worst part was the fuel was beginning to run short. As she ran down the corridor to the engines there was a loud explosion and the ship change course of its own accord.
"Why did he have to disable the damn communication systems?!" She shouted as stomped back up the hall, determined to take her frustration out on Yamcha. When she entered the bridge she found him exactly where she had left him when everything started to fall apart. He sat with his eyes closed at the destroyed helm.
"This is all your fault, I just want to make sure you understand that!" She screamed.
"Accept your fate as I have accepted mine." He said grimly.
"No." She replied.
The ship began to creak and whine as it was pulled into the atmosphere of an unknown planet. Bulma looked out the window. "She will never survive entry into the atmosphere like this. We will have to take an escape pod. At least we will have some control over those." Bulma explained to Yamcha however he continued to sit with his eyes closed, apparently not interested in anything she was saying.
"I am trying to keep us alive here, in case you hadn't noticed!" She yelled before storming off to her room. She grabbed two of her suitcases and placed them in the escape pod along with the food rations in capsules from the kitchen. On her way back up the hall there was another explosion followed by the screams of Yamcha. She ran to the bridge to see him holding his left arm as it lay dangling in an unnatural position. She ran to him, grabbing the medic kit off the wall as she passed it. It didn't take a doctor to see how bad he was bleeding. She wrapped the bandages on it tightly and helped him to his feet.
Another explosion shot out from the engine room, rocking the small ship. With the med kit tucked under her arm and helped Yamcha to the escape pods and strapped him in. She looked him over and she became frightened for him and is pale appearance. He was losing a lot of blood and she was thankful he had passed out. As the small escape pod sped towards the unknown and the planet below her ship exploded with a thunderous reverberation.
Bulma felt the chill of the rain drops as they bounced off her skin. Wait. What? Rain? Thunder? Bulma groaned as she opened her eyes. She fought back the vivid dream of the chain of events that caused her to crash land on this jungle planet. "This Kami forsaken place! Does it have to rain so much?" She complained as she got up and closed the window over her bed. She sat back down, freshly agitated about being stranded on some unknown planet, only Kami knows where. "No sense dwelling on the past." She told herself. She forced a smile on her face. "You are alive and as long as you are alive, there is hope!" She tried her best to give herself a pep talk in the mirror. Feeling somewhat better she decided to dress for the day and emerge from her room.
Yamcha's eyes automatically looked up when he heard the lock on her door being undone. A symbolic gesture reminding him of her permanent friend zone and her mistrust of him. There was no going back from that fateful day. Bulma barely glanced his way as she walked passed and out the front door of the capsule house they were sharing.
Bulma stopped outside the door and let the rains cool her already balmy skin. "Barely sun up and it's already so hot." She commented. She jumped as Yamcha appeared beside her.
"You forgot this." He said as he handed her a knife.
"I won't need it." She said, showing him the gun tucked into her waistband. "Besides, I am only going to fetch water for the purifier." She further explained.
"Take it any way, please. You never know. Those wild cats could be back." He implored.
"Okay." She caved as she took the knife from his good hand. Her eyes absentmindedly glancing past where his left hand should have been. Yamcha's shoulders sank, "I don't need your pity." He said when he noticed her glance and went back inside.
Bulma made her way through the dense foliage to the stream that flowed not far from what she now called home. She pulled a capsule from her belt that never left her waist and threw it to the ground. When the smoke cleared she gathered the jugs and began to fill them with water.
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Vegeta sat in his study pouring over the latest treaty to be sent from Lord Frieza as well as the newest set of missions that required his people's attendance. Since his mother died his father had become lax in his duties as king and more and more was being placed on Vegeta's shoulders. On several occasions his father went on a rampage killing most of the slaves in the west end of the palace, accusing them of her murder. Vegeta continued to keep him brother hidden away at his summer palace where he could watch over the humans and continue his studies, free of his father's tyranny.
The wooden door creaked open and a hooded figure silently approached.
"You better have good news, Bardock." Vegeta half-heartedly threatened without looking up.
"I'm sorry." Bardock said quietly.
Vegeta stood, his temper rising. "Three years, Bardock!" Vegeta turned around to face the older Saiyan. "Three years I have been sending you and your son to find any trace of the humans, of . . . of her! And yet you fail me. Why is that?" Vegeta accused. "If my duties did not keep me here to keep my father from getting into bed with those damned Icejins. And then there are His Lord's newest demands. I swear I would blast you into oblivion and find her myself!" Vegeta was nearly shouting.
"I was able to retrieve this." Bardock said offering Vegeta a piece of metal.
Vegeta took the metal, wide eyed, and turned it over in his hands. It was unmistakable. A large C enclosing a small C. "This is from one of the human ships!" Vegeta declared before regaining his composure. Bardock only looked on with a grin. "Where did you find it?" Vegeta asked.
"Maybe two days flight from here." Bardock began to explain.
Vegeta pulled out a star chart, "Show me."
Bardock looked closely at the map spread over the treaty and pointed to a cluster of planets. "I found the wreckage strewn all over here. She could have used an escape pod, so she could have landed on any of these planets." Bardock said warily.
Vegeta's heart was in his throat over the thought of what could have possibly happened to her ship to cause the debris field to be so vast.
Bardock's words brought him back to attention, "Hopefully she would be here, on CAT9. Not the most hospitable, but capable of sustaining life."
"These planets are within the Saiyan Empire." Vegeta said.
"Yes, my Lord. We use CAT9 for hunting trips. Calibri live and breed there." Bardock explained.
Vegeta grinned, "I think it is time I take my brother on a hunt!"